


an angel's last breath

by untakenbeepun



Series: Bad Things Happen Bingo [1]
Category: Good Omens (TV)
Genre: Angst, Bad Things Happen Bingo, Bad Things Happen Prompt: Dying In Their Arms, Death, M/M, Major character death - Freeform, aziraphale dies in this one, lots of weeping, we're all weeping here
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-12
Updated: 2019-10-12
Packaged: 2020-12-13 23:40:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,333
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21006080
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/untakenbeepun/pseuds/untakenbeepun
Summary: Neither Crowley nor Aziraphale had realised the extent of Gabriel’s wrath until he showed up and thrust a divine knife right through Aziraphale’s heart.





	an angel's last breath

**Author's Note:**

> Bad Things Happen prompt: Dying In Their Arms

It was a knife through the chest that wiped the angel from existence.

There were ways to kill occult and ethereal forms other than the famed hell and holy water. The divine weapons were locked away, kept hidden from most lest there be another rebellion. It was considered lawless to touch them unless given specific orders by the almighty Herself, and She hadn’t been available for a good six thousand years, so the weapons had been forgotten by all but one angel.

Archangel Gabriel had a very good memory and very short patience.

And neither Crowley nor Aziraphale had realised the extent of Gabriel’s wrath until he showed up and thrust a divine knife right through Aziraphale’s heart. 

Time slowed, not because he’d stopped it, but because it took a few seconds for Crowley to register what had happened in front of his eyes. 

For a moment it was almost comical the way Aziraphale let out a surprised “Oh,” and then stumbled back, his hand reaching for the knife in his chest. He wobbled and took another stumble.

It wasn’t his physical form. It was the form that existed on another plane – his true angelic form. It was bleeding away from him in droves, and as it did so, Aziraphale’s knees buckled, dropping to the floor.

It was then that the full gravity of the situation hit Crowley like a brick.

“What have you done?” he hissed, heat flashing through his veins as he shot to his feet, but there was no one to answer him.

Gabriel had vanished.

“Bastard!” Crowley roared. “Coward! Come back and fix this, you absolute piece of shit!”

His rampage only ceased when he heard a weak little cough, and then: “C-Crowley?”

All the rage flooded out of Crowley as he registered Aziraphale, weak and pale on the pavement, angelic essence flowing out of him, far, far too fast.

“Aziraphale,” Crowley said, his voice soft, “angel, angel, please. What did he do? What can I do?”

All Aziraphale did was wheeze, his body gasping for air, his breaths laboured, and all Crowley could do was _panic, _and before Aziraphale could let out another cough, he squeezed his eyes closed, and with all the strength in him, froze time.

In the other place, Aziraphale finally took a breath.

His wings outstretched, but they were all crooked and grey. There were patches everywhere, so many feathers missing.

“I don’t think there’s anything you can do. I’ve already – I can feel myself – this is the end, Crowley.”

“No. There has to be a way,” Crowley said, forcefully. “I’ll freeze time and stay with you here forever if that what it takes.” 

“You wouldn’t take the strain. You can barely hold on now, my darling,” Aziraphale said.

It was true. His form was already quivering from the weight of holding on so tightly to time and space. He’d never been able to keep time frozen for long, but damn it, he’d shatter the entire continuum if it kept Aziraphale alive.

“One last miracle,” Crowley said, desperately clutching onto the last flames of Aziraphale’s angelic essence, trying to pull him back down to Earth and hold him there, “just hold on, Aziraphale, I can do _one last miracle, _I can save you, I’ve done it countless times before—”

“Not this time, my dear.” Aziraphale’s voice wobbled, his eyes clouding over as his corporal form shook. “I think our luck ran out.”

“No.” Crowley’s voice was a desperate whine, growing louder and louder until he was screaming. “No. No. I don’t accept this. I _won’t _accept this. We were supposed to have eternity. _Eternity!_”

Aziraphale’s lip wobbled, tears spilling silently down his cheeks. “I am sorry. If I hadn’t been so bound by my duty to heaven, we might have had longer.”

Crowley’s features softened as he looked down at his fading love, lowering to kiss the tears from his cheeks, holding him as tight as he could without hurting him more, pressing their heads together and breathing in the last breaths of his angel.

“Eternity wouldn’t have been enough with you, angel,” he said, his fingers lacing through Aziraphale’s, pressing his hand against his heart. “_Not nearly.”_

“Crowley, I—”

“Don’t speak,” Crowley said softly, pressing his nose into Aziraphale’s hair. “Save your strength. I can still—”

“There’s nothing you can do for me now,” Aziraphale said, leaning back and resting a hand against his cheek. “Oh, Crowley. My dear, dear demon. I wish I had more time to tell you just how much I—”

“Don’t,” Crowley said, tears rolling down his cheeks. “Don’t, don’t, don’t do this.”

“I couldn’t go without letting you know that you were—” his voice was muffled from choking back tears— “you were the dearest thing to me. Of every pleasure on Earth, not one of them could match up to the wonder of you.”

“I can still fix this,” Crowley wept, taking a laboured breath in as the weight of the world began to shift on his shoulders. “I can hold on, I can figure out a way to save you, I _can.” _

“You can’t,” Aziraphale said softly, his hand still on Crowley’s cheek. “You have to let me go, Crowley.”

“I won’t. I won’t_. I can’t.” _

“You can’t take the strain of it, my dear,” the angel said. “Please. Let me go.”

“Don’t ask me to do this,” Crowley sobbed. “Don’t ask me to live in a world without you.”

Aziraphale gave a tearful smile, his thumb swiping across Crowley’s cheek. “We had a good 6000 years together, my love. That’s more than most people get.”

“It’s not _enough_.”

Crowley let out an anguished yell as the hold he had on time began to shift. In his mind, he imagined curling his hands around the threads of time and space, imagined holding them hard and fast and forcing them together.

His eyes had stretched, become a full yellow as he gripped harder to keep them together on this plane, but it was all too much. He could feel the force of it ripping him apart from the inside, threatening to shatter him to pieces.

“It’s killing you, Crowley,” Aziraphale said. “You can’t hold on. You have to let me go. _Please._”

“Aziraphale.” Crowley wrapped the angel up in his arms, his wings curling around him like a shroud, holding him tight against his chest like if his grip was strong enough, he could keep him anchored with him, whole and alive. He choked out the next few words, his hand still holding Aziraphale’s against his heart, “angel, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you—”

The demonic miracle broke like a snap inside him, and they were thrown back into the physical world. Aziraphale began to wheeze again, his last few breaths taken from him by force.

Sobs wracked Crowley’s body as the angel slowly faded away, the great love of his life taken from him in the worst possible way, and before he even knew what he was doing, Crowley was shouting at the sky.

“Bastards!” He screamed until his throat sore. “Hypocrites! He was too good for all of you!”

The sky gave no answer.

“Why,” he hissed, and that had always been the problem, hadn’t it? He just couldn’t stop asking _why. “_Why do you create wonderful, beautiful, _perfect _things only to watch them get destroyed? _What is the point of you_?”

He expected the sky to crackle, the almighty’s divine judgement smiting him where he stood, but he should have known that She would do nothing to answer. She’d shut Herself off from him long ago.

Crowley howled, still holding Aziraphale’s corporation in his arms, hollow without Aziraphale’s angelic essence, the last shreds of Crowley’s heart shattered along with it.

And then, as the last dregs of Aziraphale’s life vanished into nothing, the despair in Crowley’s heart gave way, and all that was left was one thing, burning a hole in his chest, threatening to scorch him alive.

Rage.

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on tumblr at [bee-elzebub](https://bee-ezlebub.tumblr.com/) and on twitter at [@untakenbeepun](https://twitter.com/untakenbeepun)


End file.
